Google Photos is adding some neat new features

Making the most of machine learning

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Google has announced that it’s updating its online photo service with some small but useful features which utilize machine learning technology.

The most notable feature is that it will automatically generate animated images from videos that you upload. When you upload videos to the Photos app from Android, iOS, or on the web it will search through them for short segments of activity like someone jumping into a pool and turn the moment into a short, shareable GIF.

It’s a neat addition to Photos that’s a natural continuation from the service’s ability to stitch together collections of burst photos to make short animations.

Helping hand

Another useful feature is that when you upload your images, Photos will now go through them and look for any sideways images that need to be rotated. Once it’s collected all of the photos it thinks need a tweak it’ll display them in a card and give you the chance to spin them all at once or select the photos separately.

Making use of its facial recognition technology, Photos will also start looking at the people appearing in your most recent uploads and will occasionally draw up old photos you have of them. Or, if you take a lot of photos of one particular person, Photos will sometimes show you a card featuring highlights of the best photos from the last month.

The most useful thing about this feature is that by only pulling out old photos of people you’ve uploaded images of recently, Photos is able to avoid any of those awkward or painful Facebook Memories incidents where you find yourself looking at a photo you’d rather not have seen again.

The features all use Google’s machine learning technology, meaning you don’t have to do a thing, and they’re being rolled out across Android, iOS, and the web now.